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NSX-V Multi-site Options and Cross-VC NSX Design Guide

Created by Humair Ahmed on Jul 22, 2016 1:36 PM. Last modified by Humair Ahmed on Jul 25, 2016 2:19 PM.
This design guide is in initial draft status and feedback is welcome for next updated version release.
Please send feedback to hahmed@vmware.com.

The goal of this design guide is to outline several NSX solutions available for multi-site data center connectivity before digging deeper into the details of the Cross-VC NSX multi-site solution. Learn how Cross-VC NSX enables logical networking and security across multiple vCenter domains/sites and how it provides enhanced solutions for specific use cases. No longer is logical networking and security constrained to a single vCenter domain. Cross-VC NSX use cases, architecture, functionality, deployment models, design, and failure/recovery scenarios are discussed in detail.

VMware NSX provides network virtualization technology that decouples the networking services from the underlying physical infrastructure. By replicating traditional networking hardware constructs and moving the network intelligence to software, logical networks can be created efficiently over any basic IP network transport. The software based approach to networking provides the same benefits to the network as server virtualization provided for compute.
Pre-NSX 6.2, although NSX provides the flexibility, agility, efficiency and other benefits of network virtualization, the logical networking and security was constrained to the boundaries of one vCenter domain.

Figure 16 below shows NSX logical networking and security deployed within a single site and across a single vCenter domain.

Although it was possible to use NSX with one vCenter domain and stretch logical networking security across sites, the benefits of network virtualization with NSX was still limited to one vCenter domain. Figure 17 below shows multiple vCenter domains which happen to also be at different sites all requiring separate NSX controllers and having isolated logical networking and security.